Why did Rob Ford do it? Why did Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney? Or Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and the sinister Patrick Brazeau?

Some politicians are genuinely idealistic although I do not sense the utopian instinct in those I just listed. Some yearn to rule. But many politicians simply love to be loved, a need that family cannot satisfy, and politics gives them the access to public money that allows them to give voters a big ecstatic Yes. Oh yes, yes, yes, you can have that thing!

The problem is that a good public servant often has to give voters a hot chunky No. I only mention this because the story of Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews being forced to meet a dying woman campaigning for an expensive and unsuitable drug treatment made me shiver with sympathy. For Matthews, that is.

Kimm Fletcher of Milton discovered in 2010 that she had a deadly brain cancer. After her initial treatment failed, she wanted a drug called Avastin that might prolong her life somewhat, albeit in miserable conditions. But it might not work (a recent study suggests it’s no better than a placebo) and it might give her flesh-eating disease, a rare Avastin side effect.

The drug cost $48,000 for a six-month treatment, including a drug company discount. Fletcher asked Matthews to overrule the Ontario drug regulatory committee that refuses Avastin in cases such as hers. It’s a cost-of-living decision so to speak.

That’s just the price of the drug, not the doctors, nurses and hospital beds, a huge sum for a treatment that doesn’t cure. Matthews said no because it would be intolerable to overrule science in favour of sentiment. Terrible things happen when you do that. Gas plants are moved, billions of dollars are blown and voters regard you with contempt for a No followed by a Yes, or vice versa. You cannot win.

Who would wish to be in Matthews’ place? I would give Fletcher the drug at any cost to give two little children more time with their mother, I would put every Torontonian within 400 metres of a subway station. Having grown up in an emotionally straitened family, I cannot cope with other people’s tears. Take my organs, my house, my savings, but please stop weeping.

Voters want politicians to offer them a basket of kisses. It can’t be done. So why go into politics? Because there isn’t enough hostility in their personal lives?

No, they do it because it gives them pleasure. Stephen Harper is a punisher. He enjoys handing out treats but he likes snatching them back even more. No, you’re not a refugee. No, we don’t let African rape victims have abortions. No EI for you.

He and his party became popular because they had a basket of Nos. It thrills Conservative voters to watch them hand out a No here, a No there, sprinkled with the phrase “taxpayer dollars.” It’s raining Nos.

When Harper sent Wallin, Duffy and Brazeau to the Senate, he was handing out three lucrative Yeses to people who would only vote Yes. When they allegedly cheated on expenses, he handed them a No. Go to the website reasonsmysoniscrying.com to see their reaction.

Why did Mayor Ford go into politics? He likes to be liked. It is the deep drag of his nature and it gives him pleasure. The man had the biggest basket of Yeses in Canada’s biggest city and he tossed them like candy at a parade. Subways, waterfront casinos, helpful roars of rage at city employees, rolling the way he likes to roll.

Substances gave him pleasure, as they do all of us who ingest substances. His problem is that you can’t say yes to secret pleasures along with public ones. They don’t fit with each other, they turn you into a screaming No, like Ford in his driveway Thursday morning, dropping his drycleaning as he lurched at photographers.

Ford howled Yes to voters, hoping for a chorus of Yeses in return and instead getting a blast of Nos. It’s so unfair. He was only distributing a basket of kisses.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.